Roos fall to Dogs in sight of finals
ACTS of self- sabotage don’t come much more dramatic or consequential.
North Melbourne yesterday set flame to its September hopes in one of the more extraordinary second- half meltdowns this season has witnessed.
It was unexpected and it was bizarre, and for the North Melbourne fans it was cruel.
Yet somehow a side that started this season 7- 4 – and led the Western Bulldogs by 28 points at halftime yesterday – now has finals hopes that are purely mathematical.
North Melbourne could only have torched its finals aspirations more effectively with a box of matches and a tin of kerosene.
At halftime they held their finals hopes in their own hands, needing only to close out the contest then beat bottom- 10 sides Adelaide and St Kilda to seal the finals deal.
At that stage forward Ben Brown was again back in the Coleman race, the Dogs had been held to three goals and North Melbourne’s players were having a riot of a time.
They should have realised a Bulldogs side celebrating Dale Morris’ 250th game would never go quietly into the night.
Just like Morris should never have brought down the brilliant Lance Franklin in that magical Grand Final moment, they never should have won yesterday.
Somehow, the brilliance of Marcus Bontempelli and his midfield comrades married with North Melbourne incompetence on a grand scale.
The Roos would kick 3.8 in the second half, player after player botching set shots that could have dragged the margin back within range.
In the final minutes of the five- point loss Paul Ahern and Mason Wood were among the offenders as the Dogs found a way to hold on.
If Brown ended up with four goals to get back on Coleman Medal parity, the Dogs knew where North Melbourne was heading at just about every inside 50 opportunity.
In contrast, a Bulldogs side that won the clearances 39- 27 through Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter and Jackson Macrae had a multi- dimensional, unpredictable forward line.
In the third term, they combined perfectly as the Dogs kicked five goals straight and eight of 10 goals for the quarter.
Bontempelli had 14 touches for the term. Off half back the Dogs mixed the smarts of Caleb Daniel with the speed of Ed Richards and Jason Johannisen.
And the Roos catch them.
Instead of a temporary lapse the Bulldogs kept the pedal to the medal in the nail- biting last term as they ensured Morris would have his milestone celebration. just couldn’t